Tuesday, January 3, 2012

January 3 – “I Have to Make a Living”

Every one of us will experience seasons where the only viable thing we can do is seek hard after God.

There might be a decision to be made of great importance to our families or careers, and at times, the difficulties and sorrows of life are so overwhelming that, without more of God we will suffer a loss of all peace and all power. Those seasons don’t always come when we’re on vacation, or when the office is closed for the holidays.

Some have children, and some have lots of children. Some care for elderly parents. Some have responsibilities that are unusually great, and some have jobs where they only plod along, day after day, but where many others would be glad to take that job away the moment the plodding stopped.

Jesus comforted us with the assurance that, in this world we would have tribulation!

That is no small comfort, for He also said that we might find the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Ours . . . for the seeking.

This is Cor Unum, that hidden monastery of the heart, where our desires are for more of God, in distress and in delight; we want the Lord our God and His Son Jesus Christ, our glory, our hope and all our help.

How well advised is the Lord concerning the pressures and difficulties and limitations and demands which we face day by day? Oh, He knows! He sees! He placed many of them there, and those we may have taken upon ourselves, He will lift as He teaches us to bear His yoke. His yoke is our unburdening. In pressure and difficulty, in the face of life’s demands and our own limitations, we may ever find Him, if we will seek after Him with our whole hearts.Turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth whether he will not return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD. (Joel 2:13)

Who knows? We know! He has left a blessing behind . . . the perpetual sacrifice of the Son of God for our sins and iniquity. This is the God we seek. What good will ever be withheld from those who love Him?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Psalm 27:4

It has been my privilege to compile a "monastic" devotional for everyday life and for women in all walks of life. We take part in this "Cyber Monastery" for the purpose of growth in devotion and the "practice of the Presence of God."

Although we may never meet, we share this cloister and this life through our prayer and worship and small, determined steps in godliness.

Neither Catholicism nor holy orders are required here; this is the most ancient monasticism, the kind that took Anna into the temple in the second chapter of Luke, Moses into the Tent of Meeting, and Paul into seclusion in the early days of his conversion. Within our families and our churches, day and night, alone or in company, we are "marketplace monastics," living to bring pleasure to the heart of God.

Join us - your new "habit" awaits ... here in Cor Unum Abbey.

"One thing have I desired of the Lord; that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple."